Five Rotarians from Kent cycled through London to 10 Downing Street on Rotary Day, Saturday 23 February, to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister recognising the UK’s role in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
The cycle ride around London was training for the Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Sittingbourne Invicta for a planned 150 mile cycle ride in July 2013 in aid of the End Polio Now campaign.
Rotarian John Fisher of the Rotary Club of Sittingbourne Invicta, said: “Rotary Day is a fitting day to focus attention on Rotary International’s global campaign, End Polio Now. Since 1985, Rotarians around the globe have raised over US$1.2 billion dollars and spent millions of volunteer hours vaccinating children in countries affected by this crippling disease.”
Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged the club’s cycle ride and wished the team the very best of luck in their fundraising efforts saying: “I salute Rotary’s unflagging efforts throughout the decades and in almost every country, towards eradicating polio and ending the suffering it causes. Rotary has made a huge contribution to the global campaign to reduce the burden of polio worldwide, but we still have much work to do to finish the job and eradicate it completely. The UK will work with all our partners to deliver a polio free world for our children.”
The fight to end polio is led by the GPEI which includes Rotary International, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, governments around the world and many others.
Global immunisations have been hugely impactful with the result that the number of new polio cases – a disease which once paralysed over 1,000 children every day – has dropped more than 99 per cent since the 1980s. India is a recent success story having now gone two years with no new polio cases. John Fisher added: “Now we have to help finish the job in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Our aim is to help fund on going vaccination campaigns to protect children from paralysis. This will take lots of vaccine, lots of volunteer hours and lots of money.”
In September 2012, at a special polio eradication event hosted by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, world leaders and Under Secretary of State Alan Duncan, Rotary International pledged another US$75 million to the fight to eradicate polio over the next three years.
